Friday, April 22, 2011

Should a candidate earn my trust before earning my vote?

Living in a country with a voting and multi-party systems one bears a great responsibility and that is "NOT to take democracy for GRANTED!"

I love this quote by Joe Wilson.

The responsibility of a country is not in the hands of a privileged few. We are strong, and we are free from tyranny as long as each one of us remembers his or her duty as a citizen. Whether it's to report a pothole at the top of your street or lies in a State of the Union address, speak out! Ask those questions. Demand that truth. Democracy is not a free ride, man. I'm here to tell you. But, this is where we live. And if we do our job, this is where our children will live.

I heard this quote for the first time in the movie Fair Game, based on the true story of a secret CIA agent, Valerie Plame, whose identity is revealed by the U.S. authorities as way of silencing her husband Joe Wilson, who wrote an article for New York Times criticizing the Bush administration move to attack Iraq based on alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.

With a federal election looming, I feel more than any time else under pressure to realize my duty as a citizen. To cast a well-informed vote.

There is abundant of information available. The information is only as good as the people who provide it. I refuse to trust one without trusting the other. Therefore, I have a dilemma. None of the candidates, and or the party leaders have done anything to earn my trust.